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New Franklin campus opening next year

The Franklin Academy charter school, which opened this past fall on its first day as the largest charter school in Palm Beach County, is opening a second campus next fall in Palm Beach Gardens.

According to a press release from Franklin, which is run by the Florida Charter Foundation charter operating group, the school will open a new 81,000 square foot school on Hood Road near Central Boulevard for the 2014-2015 school year. The school will serve kindergartners through eighth graders just like the existing Franklin Academy campus in suburban Boynton Beach, which is adjacent to the school district’s Hidden Oaks Elementary School.The release does not say how much capacity the new campus will have but their existing campus has more than 1,100 students.

According to the release the new Franklin campus will have an art room, a gymnasium, athletic fields and a jogging trail with exercise stations.

The existing Franklin campus, which was built by a for profit capital venture run by tennis star Andre Agassi, has seen its share of troubles in its first year. The school opened late because of construction delays and then in October the school had to close temporarily after 35 children got sick in a Norovirus outbreak.

The school’s principal, Christine Messer, also left in December, prompting concern from parents on the school parent teacher organization’s Facebook page.

More recently some Franklin parents have complained about what they say is a lack of computers and other basic supplies for their children and claimed they are required to buy all the school uniform clothing for their children from only one vendor.

Applications to the new Franklin campus in Palm Beach Gardens are now being accepted online at www.franklin-academy.org.

The new Franklin is one of more than a dozen new charter schools that have already received approval to open next year in Palm Beach County.